A******* C*******'s Diary

Nothing tells us more about the workings of a man's mind than his choice of words to express himself. Alastair Campbell, the Prime Minister's outgoing press secretary, was therefore revealing a great deal about his way of thinking when he confided to his diary on July 4 this year: "GH and I agreed it would fuck Gilligan if that was the source."

This was Mr Campbell's way of noting that he and the Defence Secretary, Geoff Hoon, agreed that the credibility of Andrew Gilligan's claims about the beefing up of the Iraq dossier would be seriously compromised if it emerged that Dr David Kelly was the source for them.

It was the language of a bully with an undisciplined mind - a man who saw Whitehall as a sort of vast tabloid newsroom. Sir Humphrey Appleby, of Yes Minister, might have conceived a similar thought to Mr Campbell's - the Government, after all, had good reason to be angry with the BBC. But he would have expressed it very differently.

Mr Campbell's determination to get his way has served the Labour Party extremely well over the years. But it also helps to explain how the Gilligan affair came to assume such extraordinary importance in Whitehall.

By the time Dr Kelly was summoned before the foreign affairs committee of the Commons, his case had occupied the time and trouble of the Prime Minister, the Foreign Secretary, the Defence Secretary, the chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, the head of intelligence and security at the Cabinet Office and untold other prominenti. All were roped in, one way or another, to Mr Campbell's campaign to "fuck Gilligan". Mr Campbell's eminence in the Labour hierarchy and the force of his personality were allowed to skew the proper processes of government.

There is something a little crazy about the way in which the affair developed, as it has emerged from the Hutton Inquiry. We heard yesterday how the Defence Secretary felt powerless to overrule Mr Campbell, even where his own department was the most directly concerned.

We heard how Mr Campbell predicted that Dr Kelly's appearance before the FAC, which he had done so much to promote, would turn out to be a "disaster" for the Government. But once he had locked himself and so many others into his obsessive campaign, there was nothing he could do to stop it.

The Hutton Inquiry has been right to concentrate on these aspects of the affair. It is not an inquiry into whether British soldiers were sent to war on the strength of a lie - we firmly maintain that they were not. It is an inquiry into the way in which Dr Kelly was treated, and into how the Government operates under Tony Blair.

Some justice has already come of it. The over-mighty Mr Campbell leaves office next week. The over-feeble Mr Hoon will surely follow close on his heels.